This blog post is meant to give the reader an introduction to the teachings of Thomas Merton as discussed in Episode 3 of our podcast. I want to thank Kathy Thompson for introducing me to Merton and for being such an inspiration to our work at The Story of Us. I hope you find the below post helpful to you as you explore some of the topics covered in Episode 3.
“Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts… the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes… If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time.”
— Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
In a world increasingly shaped by speed, distraction, and division, the teachings of Thomas Merton resonate with a new sense of urgency. A monk, a mystic, and an amazing poet, Merton spent much of his life in contemplative silence at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Bardstown, Kentucky. Interestingly, it wasn’t inside the cloister that he experienced one of his most profound revelations—it was in the heart of downtown Louisville, on an ordinary day, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut (Now Muhammed Ali Boulevard).
This moment, immortalized in spiritual literature, remains one of the clearest expressions of “unitive consciousness” in modern times—a glimpse of “radical interbeing” and “non-separateness” that continues to ripple through hearts and lives of humans in the 21st Century.
On March 18, 1958, Merton stepped into the hustle and bustle of downtown Louisville. As he stood on a street corner, surrounded by strangers in the shopping district, something cracked open inside him. In his own words:
“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people… that they were mine and I theirs.”
He later wrote that it was like “waking from a dream of separateness.” In the blink of an eye, the barriers he had built—between monk and layperson, the sacred and secular, solitude and society— completely dissolved. He saw each passerby as radiant and beloved by God.
He described them as “walking around shining like the sun.”
What makes Merton’s epiphany so beautiful to me is that his one shining moment wasn’t simply abstract or theological—it was totally visceral. He didn’t suddenly believe everyone was connected. He saw it. Felt it. Embodied it – and it shook him.
This is the essence of real awakening. So often, it’s not an intellectual assent to a set of spiritual principles, but a total, full bodied knowing. It’s a dramatic shift from duality to unity. A movement away from the customary “I am here, and you are there” to “we are part of one another.”
(Cue up the Beatles: I am he as you are he, as you are me and we are all together… COO COO CACHOO)
This is what Zen Masters call “kenshō”—a sudden glimpse into the true nature of things. It’s the initial experience of enlightenment, an awakening to one’s true Buddha-nature . The term literally means “seeing (ken) the essence (shō),” and it’s what many mystics across different traditions have echoed for centuries: that beneath our surface identities and roles, we are deeply and irrevocably interwoven together as a species.
This epiphany profoundly changed Merton and his outlook on life. While he remained a monk, his writings took on new urgency. He became more outspoken about civil rights, nuclear disarmament, and interfaith dialogue—not because he felt it was his social duty, but as a natural expression of a soul who had truly seen the light.
He understood that contemplation doesn’t lead us away from the world, but more deeply into it. He realized that inner awakening compels us toward outer compassion. That the more we dwell in silence, the more clearly we hear the cries of the world.
What makes Merton’s vision so powerful is not just that it happened—but where and how it happened.
Not in a monastery. Not during prayer. But in a crowd of shoppers. On a street corner. In the middle of noise, commerce, and human busyness – the monument has been right there all these many years – under my nose, in my hometown… And I never had given it a second look.
How many of us walk by remnants of the divine in the everyday and never take a moment to stop. That is the lesson of Merton’s life: to look again at the ordinary, and find the extraordinary. To recognize that awakening isn’t somewhere else—it’s here, waiting in the middle of your life. On the subway. At the supermarket. In the faces of strangers you pass by each day on your way to wherever it is you are rushing to get to.
It lives in the places we least expect holiness to live.
In our current age of division, attention deficits and separation , Merton’s words call us to remember:
- We are not alone, even when we feel most isolated.
- Others are not separate, even when they seem so different from us.
- The sacred lives among us, especially in the overlooked places.
- Love is not an emotion, but a vision—a way of seeing.
So the next time you find yourself standing still in a sea of strangers, take a hot second. Look around. Listen. You may find, just as Merton did, that we are all walking around shining like the sun.
If you are interested in learning more about Abbey of Gethsemani, please click the image below to be directed to their website.
“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy”
Thomas Merton
The Story of Us. 